No Longer Under Pacific's Triple Star Guard - Watch Out Aotearoa

"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil;
                                                                            that put darkness for light, and light for darkness"

You've made your own bed, New Zealand - now you'll have to (go) lie (down) in it...

And you might as well forget all about special divine protection of  "God's Own": after spitting decisively in His face, like Jesus He is pierced with agony in His heart, but He will accept our decision, and turn sorrowfully away - if we so choose... .

Unfortunately our decision thus - if by default - to surrender Aotearoa into the jurisdiction of the Enemy of All Good, means God will - ultimately, once we have passed that 'point of no return' - leave us to the rule of the one we have chosen...and we surely do not need to look far back across recent world history to realize that that reign can at times be exceedingly cruel and ruthless and merciless. But respect our decision He will certainly do - as the Divine Gentleman He ever is. Yes, He loves us too much not to.

(If  our parliamentary 'leaders' "sign, seal and deliver" their signatures to the 2nd and 3rd readings of the Marriage (Amendment) Bill, that is, though somehow I've - now long since - seen this as a 'fait accompli'.)                                                                     

Methinks Some Doth Protest Overly Much, And Shed Altogether Many Crocodile Tears

With Mr Parker's recent, well-deserved public excoriation for regularly messing around with boys over a sustained period, I tend to concur with those such as Newstalk ZB's intellectually-unchallenged and ever-articulate talkback host Leighton Smith, who, like so many others, including numerous callers, have put the finger precisely where it ought to point: i.e. at all those in Mr Parker's (especially school) community who conveniently turned a blind eye (and deaf ear) throughout the same extended period. Despite surely the multitude of internal alarm bells that must've been going off continually as to what might actually have been, and indeed was, going on.

Which could not but remind me of my own initial foray into teacher aiding some 10 years ago. For the fact that it took an entire 3 weeks for the standard police clearance to come through from the then Wanganui Computer and yet I was employed in the meantime irrespective surely shows the typical degree of lip service paid to the reality of child safety in  - at least some - (primary) schools. I.e. to coin the phrase employed by John Tamihere, like so many modern social agencies our schools seem 'all hui and no do-ey'.

For Credibly Setting The Record Straight

Well spoken Dr Sinead Donnelly (Friday morning on Radio New Zealand) for an impassioned, well-reasoned defence of current hospice (and hospital) practice in Aotearoa. And moreover for making an undefensive and cogent case in support of NZ's non-euthanizing status quo. Like our ever well-informed P.M. I must admit I've also long vaguely assumed that hospices, if not hospitals, 'already effectively' engaged in a kind of 'euthanasia by default', through, if not [proactively] administering pain relief, then 'by withholding medications' [in certain terminal situations]. So perhaps such an impression has been 'abroad in the land' for awhile, unless of course the P.M. is my intellectual alter ego. And though it's surely a typical media-hyped exaggeration and misrepresentation to denote Dr Donnelly's response as 'angry' or worse, I note and echo the comments of an unabashed euthanasia supporter on Mr Key's not only making such uninformed statements but moreover his extreme unwillingness to ever resile from them once 'on the record'. (Much 'food for thought' all around I feel.)  

Our Cemetery (Gravestone) Restoration Crews

Good on all those involved in this - as shown around 7.20 p.m. the other night (or 2) on Campbell Live (or Close Up): the item with Michael Holland interviewing those who have not only been severely hacked off with the appalling desecration at (in particular, one of) our numerous cemeteries around NZ, broken-down graves apparently in order to salvage the underlying precious metal/s for sordid pecuniary gain. For all those involved in the rather complex and intricate process of restoring as many of these as can feasibly be done:
"Good on ya, folks. And all power to ya. Thanks for being part of the solution, not just another - typically kiwi moaning, grumbling, bitching, griping part of the problem."

Hey, Why Didn't Dunedin Get To Welcome Home Our Victorious Olympians?!?

To Whomever It May Concern

Whoever organised the NZ Olympic Team's welcome home through the South might've surely included Dunedin, plus a number of smaller centres like Oamaru, Timaru etc...or even a 'convoy'-style trip across our entire eastern seaboard, from Invercargill north (to Blenheim); and later on, possibly the West Coast etc. C'mon, folks (who organize these things - whoever you are), please don't treat us as if we don't even exist...

Sincerely Yours

one severely hacked-off camper

Real Concern Is As 'Real Concern' Does

All power to those - both TV1 in highlighting the recent Film Festival film, Bully, and its related circumstances, and the Government - or so I understand - vis-a-vis the increasing terror/horror of the modern and typically cowardly 'art' of  'cyber bullying'. For highlighting an issue the de facto parents of the nation's kids, i.e. the schools of our land, have done sod all about for much too long. Teachers today are becoming 'desensitized' to it? You better believe it, or perhaps blind to it would be more apt. And yet 'they', or rather their chief spokespeople, have the gall to be on the Government's case - and that of new Education Minister Hekia Parata in particular - virtually without ceasing, about stuff that is marginal at best. And somewhat suspect moreover, seeing as - like 'em or hate 'em, (and Yours Truly is hardly in the former camp), they did decisively win the 2011 General Election. Something called 'democracy', folks. Check it out - it's still a word found in your average dictionary. Or are they no longer used in our classrooms?

Well, at least he fronted, and offered no excuses

All credit to Mr Breivik's dad for at least having the guts to front up for an, any interview (such as on 60 Minutes) vis-a-vis his son, and, moreover, to offer, much less attempt to, any excuses for any possible input - or lack thereof - he could have had upon him turning out as he so tragically has. Such - obviously entirely genuine and uncontrived - humility and self-censure, however deserved or undeserved, is rare indeed these days, and would be refreshing to see occasionally among those 'missing in action' deadbeat dads (and let's not forget, delinquent mums) whose in/action/s may well have helped contribute to much less awful, dire consequences, but have nevertheless sometimes permanently scarred their kids for life. Which of course isn't to claim for even a split-second that 'adults', whatever their upbringing may well have happened or not to be, aren't completely responsible for their own lives and behaviour - full stop; end of story.

P.S. And what about his mother? Doesn't she (and/or any other stepdad subsequently involved in Mr Breivik's childhood) also bear some responsibility for helping bring him up, both before and after his two parents split up? (Even if she may well now be dead, and thus unavailable for interviewing.)

Perennial Protestor He May Be, But At Least He's Consistent

Perpetually pilloried and mercilessly maligned - not that he could care, I'm sure - "good on ya, John (Minto)" for having the moral fortitude to call it as it is on the massacre of South African miners. The 'blood' splashed upon the SA embassy (I gather) fittingly betokens a government which, in such (and other) regards, has shown itself even worse, if it were possible, than its grim, gruesome, Apartheid-era predecessor. ('Dittoing' its next-door neighbour.) As I gather Desmond Tutu now acknowledges also. How Nelson Mandela must be weeping.   

Congrats - for once/a change - to the Aussies!

In particular to P.M. Julia Gillard, her Government, and specifically her Health Minister Louise Roxxon: for winning your court case against the cigarette companies. And tough bikkies to ye international purveyors of death and destruction, all of you international tobacco giants... .
                              Oz Govt, 1: Tobacco Giants, 0. Thus far, so good.

But to the NZ Government, and in particular P.M. John Key, who apparently "doesn't want to die in a ditch" over the matter - even if many other kiwis thereby (effectively) do - I have just one suggestion:
show some - real - leadership for a change. No, I mean, really!

P.S. And let's not conveniently forget all those - such as 19th Century health pioneer Ellen G White - who for anything up to one hundred-and-fifty years ago have been campaigning against the evils of tobacco (not to mention running very effective smoking cessation programmes)...and often against a backdrop of medical 'experts' and doctors still recommending it as a boon to good health!

Numbskulls without a helluva lotta nous...

So the NZ Labour Party couldn't exercise enough self-restraint and states(wo)manship to rise above the(ir) usual petty partisanship and party political oneup(wo)manship for just one (parliamentary sitting) day yesterday. Apart from the undoubted respect such would have earned them from their fellow kiwis...on the very day that the NZ Parliament duly recognized, in a truly bipartisan fashion, both its Afghani casualties and its triumphant Olympians, in a series of successive heartfelt tributes...no sooner had these finished than it was back to its/the usual  round of tit for tat interchanges with its National Government counterparts...and without even any of the 'rare, reasonable and (much less) witty' interjections so beloved of its own one-time Deputy Speaker and M.P. Geoff Braybrooke... . Was it wholly beyond the wit & the wisdom of any of its 34 MPs to actually propose to the Government that they (parliamentarians) conclude their proceedings  early in a spirit of rare bipartisanship befitting the occasion? No, as I suggest elsewhere, such dreams are ever free. Shame on y'all, and what a pity, what a great opportunity squandered... 

Put-in' the Boot in

Good on the Russian ladies (feminist troupe) put-in' their 'money where their mouth is'...& with the balls to face the music/al consequences 'to boot'...but though you're certainly finding yourself in a time of trouble, I suspect "Mother Mary" may not come to you(r aid)...But never fear, Someone's ever there...if you'll only call upon Him...

Nadzeya Ostapchuk for Comedienne Supreme

Hip hip hooray - to Nadzeya Ostapchuk - for a sheer comedy act fit for a rainy day - and are we having some of those in recent days, here on the South Island's eastern seaboard...and for a conspiracy theory, or rather 3 - to beat all conspiracy theories... Let's say/hear it again: "Hip hip hooray!!!"

And bad luck to NZ National (Radio)'s Media Watch team...you missed the boat (and even the water) entirely on that one...yep, sometimes 'first impressions' & native intuition(s) & instinctive hunches ain't altogether a bad thing, 'eh

P.S. If anyone's looking for 'the odd one out' above, sorry to say it's NO - the only part of my spell czech that ain't com-putin'...

"Welcome Home" to the entire NZ Olympic Team

For they are jolly good fellas
-and gals
for they are jolly good fellas
-and gals
for they are jolly good fellas
-and gals

and so say all of us...

Good on ya, Su'a William Sio

How unbelievably refreshing to hear that the NZ Labour Party still has a few, or maybe even just one, M.P. in its ranks with moral courage and gumption...prepared to speak up and speak out for both their own heartfelt convictions and those of their many longsuffering constituents...which is assuredly a heckuva more than can be said of at least the current crop of "Yes, Sir, No, Sir, 3 bags full, Mr Key, Sir" National Party brigade...

What a Great Effort & Performance Anyhow:CONGRATULATIONS & (Almost) CELEBRATIONS

"Bad luck" to both the male and female Black Sticks - but of course 'fingers crossed' for the latter...y'all performed outstandingly irrespective of how things have unfortunately ultimately panned out (in (semi-)final results)...in what were invariably incredibly riveting matches...esp. against some/many of the world champs, be they Germany, the Netherlands, Argentina or the USA... Even my 13-year-old nephew, as well as my very traditional, 'rugby buff', old-timer neighbour were deeply impressed...

Holding such internationally-renowned teams to draws and near-draws, and even beating the USA decisively, as well as leading Germany convincingly at one stage, were all a tv spectacle to behold;
wonderful stuff!

Definition of A 'Real' Loser (from someone who knows)

I feel somewhat qualified to comment/pontificate on this rather pertinent, extremely topical matter (of recent days), having been presented with The Book of Losers by a beloved (then despised) sister in my mid-teens (I believe for either my 15th or 16th birth-anniversary). I simply wish to share 4 ruminations on the subject.
These are components of a good working, workable definition:

*Someone who knows all the answers to irrelevant questions and/or knows the proper outcome and method in advance but is never willing to share such with others in time to tangibly improve the outcome.

*Someone who ever stands ready and prepared to throw barbs at others' efforts from the safe comfort of her or his cosy armchair.

*Someone who ridicules another's rather conspicuous failings but won't ever lend a helping hand much less finger to make matters better.

*Someone who simply knows - beyond a shadow of a doubt, though they'll rarely openly confess to the fact - that God doesn't exist, and hence proves, in his/her evident omniscience, that there really is a God.
That God clearly, though again it won't be admitted, being indistinguishable from him/herself.

But must get some shuteye, the reason  - in a totally different way - I've been a bit of a big loser myself of late...as the 'ole saying still goes, being tried and true throughout every generation: "early to bed, early to rise, makes a [person] healthy, wealthy and wise"...though admittedly am still to experience the second lot of benefits, in a 'purely' material sense that is...

Duh -"It's The Feel-Good Factor, STUPID!"

The reason 2 recent opinion polls, the first in NZ, the latest in Oz, show that their, respectively, fairly popular, highly unpopular, govts are presently, suddenly, flourishing in public esteem/support.
(No big deal really, except for the supposed surprise by the commentariat.) The real question, however, is whether such unexpected surges in support can be maintained, an especially pertinent point for Julia Gillard.

The Panel's Friday "Complaints Choir"

Brickbats and bouquets all round to Jim Mora et al's especially memorable 'Complaints Choir' halfway through last Friday's "The Panel" discussion - for its tune being 'on the tip of my tongue', so to speak, seemingly each time I awoke through the wee hours especially of the following morning...both in the (unusually late) twilight beginnings of my repose and one-and-a-half hours later, the 2nd occasion my slumber was broken...
All substantiating yet again a long held if yet unproven anecdotal theory of mine, to wit: sleep cycles, such as REM sleep, really get one's creative juices flowing and circulating - if at times deep in one's subconscious - and could surely be much more effectively utilized in the (say rote) memorization of musical lyrics and tunes, based upon the sheer number of occasions Yours Truly has awoken with a particular tune & its accompanying words on his lips, invariably listened to, generally only once, on one of my numerous records especially, on the preceding day...

"Thanks to All the Extras Who Participated In The Film": What We Would've Liked To Have Seen

A welcome credit amidst those given at the end of the film, 'In Darkness', in this year's extra good Film Festival. And a welcome change from the - rather conspicuous - absence of such a "thank you" in, seemingly many - but I may well be mistaken - of the NZ fantasy 'flicks' I've been especially enamoured of in recent years; largely since completing a 'Lord of the Rings' summer school paper at Otago varsity in early 2005. But most notably lacking from the credits in an Academy Award-acclaimed film I had a - very minor, almost inconspicuous even - part in in late 2004: i.e. 'Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe', produced/directed by Andrew Adamson, Producer/Director of the subsequent Narnia films ('Prince Caspian', 'The Voyage of the Dawn Raider', and any more to come), and all the Shrek films (1/2/3).

OLYMPICS POST #2: Good, I mean "Great!" - "Super!" Nick Willis

Good on ya, Nick: you're doing fantastic (thus far)! Hey, and bless you for sharing your testimony so naturally and powerfully (on tv) the other morning; I so agree with all the sentiments you expressed, especially about ever & always being loved by God, whatever our performance on a human plane.
It's inspiring to know New Zealand's still producing inspirational achievers in running, in God's Own's long-standing tradition of the likes of Dick Quax, Rod Dixon (at least of Commonwealth Games fame), John Walker, Peter Snell, Murray Halberg and Jack Lovelock. And in the devotional, dedicated, Christlike spirit of Eric Liddell to boot. Good on ya, Nick!

*With all due acknowledgments to David and Tom of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin fame.

OLYMPIC TEAM NZ: "Incredible CIty, Arizona!"

These things change - in a matter of minutes, let alone hours...but an unadulterated, unmitigated hurrah to NZ's team in the 2012 London Olympics. Not only are we - LET'S HEAR IT AGAIN, FOR GOOD MEASURE & ONGOING PLEASURE - ahead of the accursed Aussies (yes, let's be kind on this occasion, in the grand tradition of Olympic spirit and all)...but, apparently, wonder of wonders, we are - still*, according to my like-minded, ever news-observant fellow radiophile nextdoor neighbour - #1 - worldwide - on a per capita basis - for medals (I believe generally/overall, not 'just' golds as such)!!!
YIPPEE!!!

*at least as of 2/3 p.m. apparently, and I first heard it reported on Leighton Smith's 8.40 a.m. daily 'menu'

No, Not Very Nice - All Round

To those 3 gals/classmates (small-h, to 'mix 'n match' their 6 capital name letters) who reduced 3 successive music teachers to tears - and beyond: no doubt also to nervous breakdowns, if not actually suicide, around 35-some years ago now...
                                                   but moreover to all us fellow classmates - sadly, including Yours Truly - who lacked the moral fibre/fortitude and courage/guts/gumption to stand up to 'em, and thus allowed such appalling instances of ongoing bullying of teachers by pupils to occur: SHAME - SHAME -SHAME on y'all, that is 'us all'...we were (thus) indeed a pitiful, pitiable, pathetic bunch indeed.
Need I say more...

"Let's Say Hurray to K(entucky)F(ried)C(hicken) For A Change!

...and Hu-go said, "You go!", and I said, "No, you go!"...and soon we were back with the pack and then Dad hit the track and we ate fee-ling bet-ter in-side! And life is-n't fun-ny, with that emp-ty tum-my, "Thank good-ness for  Ken-tuc-ky Fried!" Good on yer, Colonel Sanders, for inspiring God's Own's best ever tv ad...(equal best all-time favourite alongside only 'The Milky Bar Kid'.
                                                    Life at its best in 70s NZ